Auguste requests evidence:
Until someone makes even the slightest attempt to reconcile Vox’s discussion and promoting of his own books in this very space with the position you’re taking here, I don’t see any more point in arguing this.
This is more than a little ironic, considering the complaints made at Pandagon and other places that I had NOT divulged my identity when WND interviewed me in my fiction-writing capacity some years ago. I kept my two writing hats largely separate until after numerous attempts to “out” me had already taken place, and I still do to a certain extent. True, it may be pointless within the blogosphere, but then the blogosphere is but a tiny fraction of the population. In any case, proof of a malicious intent to out isn’t all hard to determine considering the references to a “dirty little secret” and statements such as: “turns out WorldNetDaily’s Vox Day has a real name after all” and “his site tells us nothing about who he actually is”.
I note that Auguste hasn’t admitted that the Wikipedia entry – which I did not create – was created after most of the attempted outings. Indeed, if you look at the original entry, it’s clear that the initial Wikipedia entry was little more than an attempt to out itself. Despite that, I still prefer to leave my personal life and that of my family members out of the public discussion. Obviously, it’s not always possible, but that’s my preference and I appreciate that most of my critics, even some of the more persistently aggressive ones, respect my preference in the matter. I attempt to afford them the same courtesy in return.
I don’t consider myself a public figure, and except when it suits them to argue otherwise, I rather doubt that any my critics truly think that I’m well-known enough to be considered one either. And it was interesting to note how critics quickly latched onto one family story they hoped would make me look bad, while completely ignoring the much more publicized story that tended put me in a rather better light.
Now, I never had any expectation of privacy under this pen name, which the sufficiently intelligent have always known from the start given the very nature of the name. In fact, I regularly publish under another name which perhaps three people who read this blog – and none of my critics – happen to know. It’s no big secret either, it’s just that particular publishing arena doesn’t happen to have any malicious people attempting to harm others by publicly revealing their identities. And you know, there just may be one or two others too….
My position has always been that it is usually both obnoxious and malicious to purposefully reveal an identity behind a pen name, regardless of the lengths to which the individual goes or does not go to maintain his anonymity.
Meanwhile, I note that Devious Diva should perhaps be arguing with Jeff Fecke, not Michael:
Well,excuse me for being naive when I started writing but I never imagined what would happen a few years down the line. Forgive me for not being psychic?
Now I’m angry because you don’t know what it is like to be threatened. I do and it is not about being funny or clever and calling someone a “cowardly pussy”
You would be hard pushed to find me saying anything bad about anyone ( that’ll take a few days of your time) but really… I make an exception… fuck you.
You have NO idea
That’s an interesting defense, considering that Mr. Fecke of the Blog of the Moderate Left has built his case around the idea that a single post made in a gaming newsgroup five years before I began writing about politics is sufficient cause to permit all subsequent “outings”. Perhaps Mr. Fecke would like to address her here and explain to her why her position is incorrect.
It’s possible that Michael doesn’t know what it’s like to be threatened, but I certainly do. It happens from time to time, whether it’s Jews threatening to have the JDL harass me, feminists threatening to castrate me or have their boyfriends rape me, or CAIR running a mass email campaign against me and complaining about me in the Star Tribune. But they’re only words, after all… interestingly enough, the volume of such threats dropped about 90 percent right after that “flaming sword” picture was posted in an interview. It seems people realized that the whole martial arts/gym/guns thing wasn’t just a pose.
As if any of them could even take Spacebunny’s dog. Some days, I’m not even sure I could handle her dainty little flower.
Anyhow, it’s pretty simple. Either you consistently refer to people by their pen names or by their real identities. I contend that the former is much more courteous. But if you vary your behavior depending upon whether you like the person or not, you’re just a malicious jerk, and if you criticize others for revealing the identities of those you like while revealing the identities of those you don’t, then you’re a malicious jerk and a hypocrite to boot.